So Long As We Have Hands To Clasp
by Weird Heart
Summary: Sometimes a visit from an old friend can change everything.


**Hey-ho, everyone! Your favorite Weirdo here with a Christmas oneshot for you all. I'm not sure what possessed me to write this. In fact, I don't even remember getting the idea. All I know is I sat down to write it, and now here we are. Happy Holidays from Weird Heart, and enjoy So Long As We Have Hands To Clasp.**

* * *

_Sometimes a visit from an old friend can change everything. This is especially true during the holiday season, which, as you folks know, is full of magic and wonder. A visit from an old friend is all it takes to turn a day upside-down, and fill you with newness and life and nostalgia._

_Sometimes all you need is a visit from an old friend to wake up._

Isabella sighed as she ran her thumb over the picture, precious in its glass frame. It was like it preserved an instant in time, that, if she held carefully and concentrated hard enough, she could resurrect and live in forever.

It was a picture of a dark haired girl in her early teens squished between a red-head on the right and, oddly enough, a green-haired boy on the left. Of course, it didn't seem odd back then. Nothing did. Phineas was smiling in the photo-as he was apt to do- and the best part about it was that it was genuine. It wasn't a "say-cheese-plaster-it-on-your-face" kind of smile. It was a real smile that made you warm just seeing it, and being on the receiving end of it was enough to brighten the darkest of days.

Ferb was smiling, too, which was a rare but lovely sight to behold. His facial expressions were gentle and his eyes were kind, and he was the boy you would find yourself missing after hours of wondering why you were having such a bad day. His speech was also infrequent, but his voice was mesmerizing and his thoughts could hold someone rapt for forever.

And the girl in the middle… she looked so happy. Tears streaked down her face as Isabella tried to remember being so happy, so carefree. She was only 23, why wasn't she? Why couldn't she summon that familiar feeling of childlike glee? Where had her joy gone?

But even as she asked herself, she knew. It had left right along with Phineas and Ferb, almost eight years ago. Eight years… and here she was. If she closed her eyes, she could still see that day as clear as if had happened last week.

It had been a sunny August afternoon, and the day everyone had seen coming from miles away was here. Phineas and Ferb, just over 15, were leaving for college. It was too soon for their friends, but their sadness was swallowed by their happiness for the brothers. And it was easy to see how proud of them their family was.

And of course, Isabella had put on a brave face. A part of her truly was ecstatic to see the two boys- _her _boys- reach their full potential. But it was hard to lose the people she considered family.

At first, it was okay. There were e-mails and phone calls all the time, even visits during breaks. She was handling their absence and focusing on the future. Baljeet helped her with the concepts she didn't understand in school, but he was right behind Phineas and Ferb and left for a pre-med program at Harvard when he was sixteen.

The only family she had ever known outside of her mother and her nana was drifting apart. She started to struggle with her education. Sure, she was intuitive and a quick thinker, and on occasion she could be very resourceful. But she wasn't book smart, and she never had been. That part was always left to Phineas, Ferb, and Baljeet, all of whom were gone.

There was Buford, but things just sort of spiraled into awkwardness between them. With no mutual friends to bring them together, they simply didn't see each other anymore. And the longer they went without speaking, the harder it was to salvage whatever friendship they'd formed as children.

She was only a little surprised when she received word through the grape vine that he'd joined the military right after graduation.

And so, she was left alone. Struggling to find a piece of herself in what felt like a giant black void. Who was she without her friends? When they left, it felt like something inside of her died a little until she was just a shell of the bright, outgoing girl she could hardly remember being.

Once in a while, she would receive an e-mail from one of the brothers and even Baljeet every now and then. But it was nothing like what it had been before. All she knew about Phineas and Ferb was that Phineas was an engineer- big surprise- and Ferb hadn't settled into a career yet, which also wasn't unexpected. He was first and foremost a thinker, and didn't come as a shock to anyone that wanted to weigh all of his options before choosing something.

While she had gotten over her longtime crush on Phineas, she had never stopped loving either of them and without them she felt lost.

So, she moved out of Danville. There was nothing left there for her. Now she was an investigative journalist in Rhode Island, of all places. There wasn't really a reason she had picked Rhode Island, at least at first. In fact, she'd simply closed her eyes and pointed at a United States map. When she opened them, her finger was directly over the little "RI," the only thing distinguishing it from Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Since she didn't see a better option, she picked herself up and moved to Rhode Island. There, she got a degree in journalism, and made a career out of it with Jamestown Press. After a while, she found some satisfaction in the little things. There was solace in the isolation of the small island community. There was always something to be done or written or edited. When she got an assignment she could really sink her teeth into, she devoted herself to it, pouring all of her focus into it. After too many lonely years, she allowed people in. She made friends and bonded with people. It was impossible not to in such a small town. She made a life for herself, which was something she never knew she could do without Phineas or Ferb. In a way, it was a relief, rediscovering herself.

Most of the time, she truly was content.

But there were also nights like these, where she desperately wanted to be thirteen again. She wanted to forget the memories that had turned into a burden she carried with her everywhere.

She wanted Phineas and Ferb. Especially tonight of all nights on Christmas Eve. Even though she celebrated Hanukkah when she was small, and still did, it was difficult not to get into the spirit of things. So, every December, she found herself longing for what used to be.

Isabella was startled out of her thoughts when there was a knock at the door. Hurriedly, she put the photo back in its drawer and wiped her eyes.

She smiled. Really, she should have been expecting a visitor. It wasn't a huge secret that she lived alone, and all of her closest friends would be at her door, trying one last time to get her to stay with them for Christmas. It was a small town, and while at first, Isabella had been unfamiliar and even slightly afraid of it, the closeness of the community was something she couldn't imagine living without.

Really, she would have loved to be at a friend's house right then instead of brooding alone in hers. But the reason she had turned every invitation down was that she knew that no matter where she was or who she was with, she would want to be somewhere else. And she didn't want to be a downer during the holidays.

Yet, something within her steeled as she approached the door. She was sick of being sad or wistful when she should be moving forward with her life. It was Christmas, for goodness' sake! Whoever this next invitation would be from, she had resolved to accept it. Maybe she could finally get over this and be happy- all the time.

She took a deep breath, smiled, and opened the door.

Who she saw standing there was the last person she expected to see, and her smile slid off to be replaced by a look of awe.

"_Ferb?_"

"I don't believe you know anyone else with this color hair," he responded in a very Ferb-like fashion with the faintest of smiles.

"I just can't believe that it's really you… that you're really here. Please, come inside." The look of utter surprise did not leave her face as they both stepped inside her house.

"How did you know I was here? I never said anything in any of my letters. What are you doing here?" Her voice was breathless, and the words came out in a rush.

"When you told Phineas you had become a journalist, he looked you up right away. It didn't take him long to find you on the Jamestown Press website. It's just been so long, I felt a visit was overdue."

Isabella didn't say anything in return, just nodded. She'd never been so taken aback, not even when she arrived at her house to find it filled with the entire newspaper staff celebrating her first year anniversary in Jamestown. The only thing she could managed to pull from her scrambled thoughts was,

"It's good to see you, Ferb."

"We've missed you, Isabella. Phineas and I have been trying to get over here to surprise you, but lately Phineas' schedule has barely allowed for him to fly home tomorrow morning. I haven't seen much of him these days. Nothing's been the same since college."

Still empty of words, Isabella nodded again. She and Ferb hadn't spoken face to face for eight years, and "spoken" wasn't exactly the right word for the interactions they'd had anyway. Afraid she would break this magic spell that caused Ferb to be so liberal with his speech, she kept her mouth closed as he continued.

"And, I will admit, the first few months without you or the rest of the gang or Mum, Dad and Candace was almost unbearable. Phineas and I shared a dorm, which made it easier… but I don't think I'd ever felt so unreachable. I wanted normal back. I wanted you back. But I adjusted. I got my degree and I've been doing work here and there. The whole time though, I never stopped missing any of you.

"So, I don't know what it was that possessed me to drive to the airport this morning and get on the first flight here. But I knew that the moment I learned you were living here that I would be here eventually. I guess the Christmas season just got to me. But fate, destiny, my own rash actions- whatever it was telling me to come, I'm glad I listened."

Isabella was utterly speechless. A lump formed in her throat as she tried to push the words through, as she tried to tell Ferb all that had happened and how much she'd missed him, too. How she felt empty because she wasn't with him and Phineas, and how all she'd wanted every Christmas for eight years was to see them.

But those words were too much, and they wouldn't come yet, although they would eventually. Instead, all that she could muster in that moment as the smile spread across her face and tears streaked down her cheeks was,

"Me, too."

* * *

**I don't know about you, but I really liked this one. I'll admit, it isn't the carol-singing, Santa Claus rest stop building, fun-filled Phineas and Ferb Christmas story you may be used to, but I think it could definitely qualify as holiday feel-good. Is that even a genre? Who knows. For those of you who might be curious about the title, it's a line from the song "Welcome Christmas," from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" And for Pete's sake, if you don't know what that is, you have some serious holiday catching-up to do. I may update some more in the coming week, but for now,**

**Happy Holidays from Weird Heart, and remember:**

**To be odd is one of the greatest pleasures that life offers.**

**-Weird Heart**


End file.
